Works Complete on the Northern Gateway

Transporting Bedford works to ease congestion and improve road safety on the Northern Gateway has now been completed, delivering a major improvement on this well-known pinch point on Bedford's roads.

This is one of the biggest improvements schemes delivered, on budget, through the Transporting Bedford project, during challenging circumstances with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and material and labour shortages.

The completion of the Northern Gateway marks the end of the Transporting Bedford project. This has been a £24million project- the largest ever investment in Bedford town centre to tackle congestion hotspots.

Cllr Charles Royden, Portfolio Holder for Highways said, "The completion of the Northern Gateway marks the end of the Transporting Bedford project which has seen works including Ampthill Road, Britannia Road, Bromham Road and Bedford High Street. This has achieved improvements to well-known hotspots, eased congestion and made our roads safer for all users.

"I would like to say a huge thank you to residents, visitors and other road users for their patience as we have carried out these vital works."

Judith Barker, Director of Programmes and Governance added, "SEMLEP supported Bedford Borough Council with over £15m for Transporting Bedford 2020 from the Local Growth Fund and this saw improvements to traffic pinch-points, public realm and the technology, which enables quicker traffic flow. The overall scheme reduces journey times and encourages people into the town. We are pleased to mark the completion of the scheme."

As part of this scheme, Clapham Road between Paula Radcliffe Way and Manton Lane has been widened to create an extra lane for traffic and a left-turn filter lane up Manton Lane, allowing traffic to bypass the roundabout. A right-hand turn has been added for traffic coming south down Clapham Road to turn right into Sainsbury's; also taking traffic off this busy roundabout.

The Clapham Road roundabout itself has been widened to create more space for traffic to flow, and traffic signals installed to help ease congestion during the morning and afternoon rush hours. As with other schemes we have invested in Improvements for pedestrians and cyclists to encourage sustainable travel.

Works to ease congestion have been completed on Britannia Road creating an extra lane and installing new signals, on Ampthill Road where more space was created and technology installed to improve traffic flow, and on Manton Lane with the installation of a footbridge, to replace the one removed by the County Council, alongside other works.

The improvements to Bedford High Street, which has seen traffic taken out of our town centre, new paving installed and pavements widened to create more space for shoppers and pedestrians.

Works have also been carried out on a series of smaller traffic junctions to upgrade to the latest technology and help them operate more efficiently.

This project is part of Transporting Bedford, a project to tackle congestion hotspots in Bedford, funded by both Bedford Borough Council and funding from the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), through the Local Growth Fund and represents the largest ever investment in Bedford's roads.